The name Larry Minor holds great reverence across multiple motorsports categories, but it is off-road and drag racing where he is most esteemed. At any dragstrip in North America, say the name Larry Minor and folks will recognize it right away. His home is lined with NHRA’s highest award called a “Wally”. His list of accomplishments in the sport of NHRA Drag Racing is legendary as an owner and a driver. That is not where the beginning of Larry Minor’s love affair with internal combustion started. His first love was off-roading and it took him all the way to the Off-Road Motorsports Hall Of Fame.

In The Beginning

Growing up in the Hemet, California area as a young man meant Jeeps were the off-road vehicles of choice. The social circle of local off-roaders revolved around the Hemet Jeep Club, founded in 1948. Larry started off-roading in 1959 with trips to the Glamis Sand Dunes in his Jeep CJ-6. This is where Larry figured out the driving style needed to stay moving in the sand with only a stock four-cylinder engine.

By 1962, Larry and his friends Jim Loomis, Carl Jackson, and Rod Hall were members of the Hemet Jeep Club. They took part in the club events which featured various competitions of obstacle courses, hill climbs, and sand drags. These young men started dominating these events throughout the 1960s.

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(Left) Larry Minor tops the hill at the Hemet Jeep Club Glamis competition where he won three different titles. (Center) At the 1967 Salt Lake City Snow Run Larry came away with three trophies. (Right) Larry Minor shared Rod Hall's Jeep CJ-5 for the 1971 National Four-Wheel-Drive Grand Prix. Images Courtesy of Larry Minor

On one particular trip returning from Glamis, his Jeep’s motor expired. Once back home, Larry swapped out the broken stock motor with a 409 cubic-inch Chevrolet V8. This placed him in the modified class. Larry tells how big brother Wayne was off at college at the time. His car was stored in the family garage. Guess where the engine came from?

Larry Minor Earned His Reputation As An Innovator

1965 was a breakout year for Larry on several levels. Minor built the first fiberglass four-wheel-drive Jeep powered by a 352 cubic-inch Chevrolet engine with a 6-71 blower running on a mixture of nitromethane fuel. The Jeep was named “Flower Power” (a popular phrase in the day) and would go on to dominate sand sports events for the next four years.

By the end of 1965, Larry was named the California Association of Four-Wheel-Drive Clubs Driver of the Year. In 1968, he and Flower Power won 22 of 23 sand drag races.

Larry Minor At The 1967 Mexican 1000

The first professionally sanctioned race of the Baja Peninsula run took place in 1967. National Off-Road Racing Association (NORRA) organized the event which started in Tijuana, Baja California, on October 31, 1967. Technically, the race began in Tijuana but restarted in Ensenada, where the real racing began. The course length was 849 miles (1,366 km) and there were only five checkpoints.

Named the NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally, 68 competitors racing various vehicle types in several classes took on the challenge. Two of those men were Larry Minor and Rod Hall. Neither man had ever been any further south than Tijuana. They sat at the start line in a completely stock Jeep CJ-5 with six new tires courtesy of their wives asking for sponsorship from Dick Cepek Tires. They had a map of Baja from the 1940s, and someone handed Rod a compass and told him to just keep it pointed southeast. Two spares, a tool chest, an ice chest, and a wild sense of adventure were all they had when they took the start a little after midnight on Halloween.

Because of the sheer distance involved, Larry and Rod ran a higher tire pressure looking to make the tires last. As the race wore on it was at the occasional checkpoints that they could gauge how they were doing. Coming into El Arco, the halfway point, Larry thought they were doing pretty well. The checkpoint worker told them that the Ford Bronco of Ray Harvick and Bill Stroppe was two hours ahead of them.

Authors Note: Photos from the 1967 Mexican 1000 are very rare and even Larry does not have one. But we did find this video!

Who Needs Spares?

There was still a long way to go, and the men knew that if they wanted a chance at winning, they needed to be bold. Larry removed the ice chest, the tool chest, and both spare tires, and left them with the checkpoint crew. Then Rod aired down the tires like they would at a club obstacle race and roared out of El Arco looking for the Bronco.

100 miles later, as the sun was rising, navigating their way through the infamous silt beds near San Ignacio, they saw a Ford Bronco headed right for them. Each waved the other down to consult who was going the right way. Larry knew they were headed south because his cheap hand-me-down compass said so. Bill Stroppe did not believe it. Larry pressed on southward. Harvick and Stroppe went to take off too, but they sunk into the ruts and got stuck until the next car through and yanked them out 30 minutes later.

Larry and Rod ran like a scalded dog all the way to La Paz. They arrived at the finish line after 34 hours and 10 minutes wondering where the Bronco was, but it never turned up. Turns out, the Ford Bronco rolled a handful of times, then about 100 miles from La Paz the timing chain broke. Harvick and Stroppe did finish, but after the official allotted time had passed.

Larry Minor would go down as the first four-wheel-drive winner of the NORRA Mexican 1000. This race was later renamed the Baja 1000 in 1975. The overall winning time of the 1967 Mexican 1000 was 27 hours 38 minutes for that first race was set by Vic Wilson and Ted Mangels driving a Meyers Manx buggy.

1968 Was Another Great Year Of Racing For Minor

Shortly after the Mexican 1000, Bill Stroppe asked Larry to come down to his Long Beach shop. He offered to build Larry a brand-new Bronco. Off in the corner of the Stroppe shop was a beat-to-death-looking Bronco, the one Stroppe and Harvick drove in Baja. Larry pointed at the battered unit and said he wanted that one. Stroppe asked why? Larry said, “You beat and rolled that Bronco all the way down the peninsula and still made it. That tells me it is tough enough for me.”

At the first race of the season, the inaugural Mint 400, Larry’s Bronco was not quite done so Stroppe had Larry join his old friend, Jim Loomis, in his Bronco. The pair took the win in the four-wheel-drive class and Top Five overall. Larry was in his own Bronco for the Stardust 7-11 which was basically the same course as the Mint 400 but run twice. Larry and his sand drag engine builder, Jack Bayer, teamed up to take the win in class and overall four-wheel vehicle.

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(Left) Larry Minor and Jim Loomis on a rare smooth road at the 1968 Mint 400, the first of three big wins for the year. (Right) Larry Minor and Jack Bayer about to take the start of the Stardust 7-11 ahead of Parnelli Jones and Ray Harvick. Win #2 of 1968 for Minor. - Photos Courtesy of Larry Minor

 

The season ended at the second-annual Mexican 1000 where Larry had the opportunity to pre-run the course with the Stroppe Team and really prepare. It paid off, Larry and Jack had a clean run and were again the first four-wheel vehicle overall, but only about 50 minutes behind the overall motorcycle. Larry and Stroppe started talking about 1969 and the possibility of beating the motorcycles to La Paz.

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(Left) Larry Minor and Jack Bayer leading the way to La Paz ahead of every non-motorcycle entry. (Right) Arriving at the finish of the 1968 Mexican 1000 looking quite clean. - Photos Courtesy of Larry Minor

Larry Minor Reflects On The 1969 Racing Season

The real focus of the 1969 season was on the third annual Mexican 1000. Stroppe built a new, lighter racer for Larry with more horsepower and some new suspension tweaks. In the meantime, Rod Hall had some issues with the Brian Chuchua team he joined and was looking for a new ride. Larry invited Rod to join him in the Bronco and the first Mexican 1000 winners were reunited.

Coming into the first pit near Camalu, the Bronco was running hot at about 220 degrees. The pit added water and they continued. The temperature did not come down, but at least it was running. At the next pit, Larry told the crew to cut the spring on the radiator cap essentially making the cooling system run at zero pressure. It helped a little, but it was still hot. Much like in 1967, Larry and Rod were going all in and running it hard until they reached La Paz, or until it blew up.

The First And Only 4×4 Overall Winner

The real focus of the 1969 season was on the third annual Mexican 1000. Stroppe built a new lighter racer for Larry with more horsepower and some new suspension tweaks. In the meantime, Rod Hall had some issues with the Brian Chuchua team he joined and was looking for a new ride. Larry invited Rod to join him in the Bronco and the first Mexican 1000 winners were reunited.

Coming into the first pit near Camalu the Bronco was running hot at about 220 degrees. The pit added water and they continued. The temperature did not come down and but at least it was running. At the next pit, Larry told the crew to cut the spring on the radiator cap essentially making the cooling system run at zero pressure. It helped a little, but it was still hot. Much like in 1967, Larry and Rod were going all in and running it hard until they reached La Paz, or until it blew up.

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(Left) The morning of the race the entire Stroppe Team was grouped together in the impound yard. The calm before the dusty storm. (Center) Larry Minor (right) and Rod Hall (left) celebrating their record finish while still wearing their helmets. (Right) While testing before the race Ford plopped a photographer in the Bronco with Larry to get some publicity photos. - Photos Courtesy of Larry Minor

They reached La Paz in 20 hours and 48 minutes, accomplishing their goal of beating the motorcycles and winning the race overall with a four-wheel-drive vehicle. This accomplishment stood firm in the record books till 2020 when the new modern Trophy Trucks with four-wheel-drive achieved a reliable threshold.

The 1970s

During the early 1970s, Larry drove the most iconic Broncos of the day including the Colt and the Pony (the predecessor to Big Oly). His favorite was the Pony, a former two-wheel-drive Bronco kit car that never made it to production. Larry drove the Pony to many notable finishes from 1971 to 1974.

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(Left) Larry's favorite Bronco was the Pony, a two-wheel drive version of the production Bronco. Bill Stroppe turned it into a race-winning hot rod for Parnelli Jones first, then Larry. (Right) Nosing into the Nevada desert at the 1973 Mint 400. Larry finished second to teammate Parnelli Jones in Big Oly, his only Mint 400 win. - Photos Courtesy of Larry Minor

By late 1974, the Bronco program came to an end when Ford wanted to concentrate on the new Courier mini-truck. Larry decided to back off from off-road racing and concentrate on sand drags and the family farming business.

Larry built a few one-off rides here and there and came back to Stroppe in 1980 for some events in a Ford Courier. In 1984, he had Walker Evans build a Chevrolet truck to race in Class 8 with his old friend, Parnelli Jones. Eventually, Larry turned the truck over to Steve Kelley with sponsorship from Miller American Brewing, the same sponsor he had on his NHRA drag racers.

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(Left) In 1975 Larry attempted a couple of races in a sprint car style single seater. It had a magnesium block and Chevy aluminum heads. Mickey Thompson would buy this car later and make it one of his Challenger cars. (Center) Larry and Parnelli Jones ran a season together in a state-of-the-art Chevrolet built by Jon Nelson at Walker Evans shop. (Right) That same Chevrolet truck ran for several seasons with Steve Kelley at the wheel with great success. - Photos Courtesy of Larry Minor

Present Day

After all of his accomplishments in NHRA Drag Racing, building sand drag Jeeps, overseeing the family potato farm, and other businesses, Larry is not technically what you would call retired. While his racing days are over, he is still a lover of off-roading and can be found exploring Death Valley in his new Ford Bronco. He splits his time between his homes in San Jacinto and Oceanside. Larry is enshrined in both the NHRA Hall of Fame and the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Now in his 80s, Larry has been together with his wife Sandy for many decades. His passion for speed and adventure seems to be just as fiery as it was in his youth. Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.